Watershed...
the word means a parting, a shedding of waters. But a watershed
is a gathering place also. It is a place where hills and plains
and people's lives are connected by falling rain and flowing water.

A
watershed is measured by the hilltops and ridges that are its
boundaries. It is shaped by the hills, valleys and plains that
are the landscape, and is tempered by the forests, fields, lakes,
and marshes that are habitats for its creatures. Most of us know
a watershed through its streams and rivers that connect forest
with farm, and farm with city... and each of us changes the watershed
day by day, bit by bit, as we go about the business of our lives.

Water
cycle

In
a watershed, the rain, the rivers, the lakes and wetlands, even
our drinking water are all parts of an intricate cycle. Rain falling
on the land soaks into the earth; some runs off to streams; some
evaporates before it ever reaches the earth. The water that soaks
into the ground becomes part of the ground water and feeds streams
and wetlands and supplies much of our drinking water. Surface
runoff forms streams, then rivers that eventually empty into our
oceans. Rivers are the sign that the cycle is working... returning
water to the oceans where it evaporates, forms clouds, and falls
again.

Watersheds
and People

A
change in the watershed affects our lives... a change that we
make in the landscape affects the watershed. It's all connected.
Nature's changes can be as quiet as branches building up behind
a fallen log and changing the path of a stream. Or they can be
as dramatic as a winter flood. Our actions, too, can be subtle
or very dramatic... but they all affect someone or something.
When we cut forests, clear land, lay concrete and asphalt, and
build houses and towns we cause changes in the watershed. Those
changes mean the water cycle works differently.

Rain
striking the ground has fewer places to soak in gradually... runoff
is faster and more violent... causing erosion and flooding. Water
quality deteriorates as water drains from farms and cities carrying
pesticides, animal waste, oil and heavy metals into our ground
water, streams, and eventually, rivers. Streams and fish habitat
are damaged. Salmon, especially, have difficulty surviving when
streams run faster and streambanks are cleared.

The
watershed, the water cycle and our lives are all connected. Any
action, anywhere, affects the land, the water, and ultimately,
us.

Watershed
words:

Headwaters: Source of a stream.

Watershed: The land from which
rain collects and runs to a single point.

Ground
water: Water that lies beneath
the earth's surface.

Infiltration: The slow movement
of water from the surface to the ground water.

Hydrologic: Related to water in
all its forms.

Aquifer: An underground water
supply flowing through rock

Why
Monitor Watersheds?

Introduction

Increasingly,
State and Tribal water resource professionals are turning to watershed
management as a means for achieving greater results from their
programs. Why? Because managing water resource programs on a watershed
basis makes good sense -- environmentally, financially, and socially.

Better
Environmental Results

Because
watersheds are defined by natural hydrology, they represent the
most logical basis for managing water resources. The resource
becomes the focal point, and managers are able to gain a more
complete understanding of overall conditions in an area, and the
stressors which affect those conditions.

Traditionally,
water quality improvements have focused on specific sources of
pollution, such as sewage discharges, or specific water resources,
such as a river segment or wetland. While this approach may be
successful in addressing specific problems, it often fails to
address the more subtle and chronic problems that contribute to
a watersheds decline. For example, pollution from a sewage treatment
plant might be reduced significantly after a new technology is
installed, and yet the local river may still suffer if other factors
in the watershed, such as habitat destruction or polluted runoff,
go unaddressed. Watershed management can offer a stronger foundation
for uncovering the many stressors that affect a watershed. The
result is management better equipped to determine what actions
are needed to protect or restore the resource.

Saving
Time and Money

Besides
the environmental payoff, watershed approaches can have the added
benefit of saving time and money. Whether the task is monitoring,
modeling, issuing permits, or reporting, a watershed framework
offers many opportunities to simplify and streamline the workload.
For example, synchronizing monitoring schedules so that all monitoring
within a given area (i.e., a watershed) occurs within the same
time frame can eliminate duplicative trips and greatly reduce
travel costs.

Efficiency
is also increased once all agencies with natural resource responsibilities
begin to work together to improve conditions in a watershed. In
its truest sense, watershed protection engages all partners within
a watershed, including Federal, State, Tribal and local agencies.
By coordinating their efforts, these agencies can complement and
reinforce each other's activities, avoid duplication, and leverage
resources to achieve greater results.

Data
collection is one activity that is particularly ripe for greater
cooperation and coordination. For example, a State can reduce
its own monitoring costs by factoring in the monitoring activities
of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Geological
Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and
the National Resource Conservation Service. In addition, permittees
and other stakeholders that generate ambient monitoring data can
form basin-monitoring consortiums to pool resources and provide
the State with greater consistency in collecting and reporting
data.

Greater
Public Support

Watershed
protection can also lead to greater awareness and support from
the public. Once individuals become aware of and interested in
their watershed, they often become more involved in decision-making
as well as hands-on protection and restoration efforts. Through
such involvement, watershed approaches build a sense of community,
help reduce conflicts, increase commitment to the actions necessary
to meet environmental goals, and ultimately, improve the likelihood
of success for environmental programs.